Can this ultra low cost “predator” rifle perform as a long range precision rifle? We perform a full review to find out.

By Mel EwingAugust 26, 2016

Specs

Manufacturer: Ruger

Model: American Rifle Predator

Model Number: 6974

Caliber: 308 Win

Barrel: "Heavier" cold hamer forged barrel

Barrel Length: 18" (457mm)

Twist: 1:10"

Magazine: 4 round detachable rotary magazine

Trigger: Factory "Marksman" Trigger, adjustable for weight

Stock: Synthetic

Metal Finish: Matte Black Bluing

Weight: 6.2 lbs (2.82 kg)

Overall Length: 38" (965mm)

List Price: $ 529

Street Price: $ 475

Additional Notes: "Heavier" barrel does not mean "Heavy Barrel".

Ruger came out with their low cost American line of rifles a few years ago and because they were all lighter sporter style rifles we initially had no real interest in them. It was about a year after their introduction that they announced a new model in their American Rifle lineup called the Predator, which featured a “heavier” weight barrel that was even threaded for a suppressor or muzzlebrake, all at a very low cost. These rifles were advertised as being made in the USA and so we had hope that perhaps a very low cost rifle might be available for long range shooting, or even a BOPR style rifle. So we waited for them to become available so we could do an evaluation. And we waited, and waited, and waited for over a year. Finally, earlier in 2016 they finally became widely available and we ordered one up for evaluation here. Unfortunately, when it arrived, we were immediately disappointed. The barrel may be “heavier” as advertised, but “heavier” does not mean heavy. The barrel is only slightly thicker than their sporter barrel profile, at least we are assuming it is since that is how they advertise it. We here would classify it as a sporter barrel. That was a let down, but we had the rifle here, so we figured we would run it through the tests anyway just to see how it did.

Right off the bat, the first thing that came to mind when we started looking at the rifle in detail was “cheap”. The stock is molded from plastic, which is considered synthetic, and you can hear the hollow sound of it when you tap on the buttstock. There is also a squishy rubber recoil pad that does absorb some of the recoil. The comb of the stock where your cheek rests is not elevated and has a sporter style shape to it. The rifle is not advertised as any sort of tactical rifle, but is billed as a predator rifle to be used for coyote hunting and the such. Typically predator rifles are similar to a varmint rifle with heavy barrel, but perhaps with a smaller profile stock for lighter weight. The Ruger Predator rifle seems to be more sporter and as such the stock is very sporter like. This theme continues up through the pistol grip as well as it is thin and swept back, doing away with a vertical style grip. The green colored plastic stock does have a semi-rough texture to it to help provide friction to hold your cheek in place when firing. The pistol grip also has some triangle like raised designs to it for added gripping surface.

In front of the pistol grip the stock is molded into a trigger guard, removing that separate part of the rifle and reducing manufacturing costs. Provided the plastic can hold up to the abuses of field use, it should work fine, though after-market stock makers will now have to deal with providing a trigger guard as well. At the bottom of the pistol grip there is a plastic cap with the rugger logo on it. This cap doesn’t provide any functional use and its not really noticeable, but we thought we would mention it anyway. The stock maintains its thin profile through the action area as well and located directly in front of the trigger guard is a detachable box magazine, which we would not expect to find on a lower priced rifle like this. The magazine is a rotary box magazine which should surprise no one as Ruger has been making rotary magazines on their 10/22 rifles for many decades. The magazine for the American Predator rifle reminds us of the 10/22 design but on a larger scale. The magazine only holds four rounds, and it detaches simply by pulling the lever at the front of the magazine back toward the rear and then removing the magazine from the rifle. It is a simple system and since all of the moving parts are contained on the magazine, it means the stock remains simple and more affordable to manufacture. The magazine well consists of nothing more than a smooth sided opening being molded into the stock. That is it, there are no other parts to manufacture. It was no surprise that the magazine is made of plastic as well.

There is a depression molded into the stock at the front of the magazine well to allow access to the magazine release lever and once you get used to where it is located, it becomes easy to operate, though a bit different than what most might be used to on a tactical rifle. Again, it is very much like a 10/22 magazine, so if you have experience with 10/22s, it’ll feel more natural. The forearm of the stock maintains the thin sporter profile with no widening of the forearm to allow a more stable shooting platform. The top of the forearm even pinches in, though we are not sure why beyond aesthetical reasons and maybe it saves a few grams of weight. Some more of the triangle style raised gripping texture is present there as well, but beyond that, the forearm is pretty standard fair. There is only a single sling stud, and one in the rear, so if you plan to use a bipod, then the sling would need to be attached to the bipod itself. It does need to be mentioned that while there is no aluminum bedding block, the stock is of sufficient stiffness to allow the barrel to be free floated all the way back to the lockring/action. The barrel remains free floating even when using a bipod or sandbag up front. The stock does have two V shaped small blocks in the stock that sit in two machined grooves at the bottom of the action to mate the stock to the action in a way that allows the action to be properly aligned in the stock. Ruger calls this the Power Bedding integral bedding block system, but beyond easily aligning the stock to the action, they probably act more like pillars than a bedding block. This system does allow for a free floated barrel and it can be considered similar to doing a two point bedding on a wood stock.

Protruding out past the rear tang of the action is a two position safety. When the bolt is cocked the safety can be pulled to the rear to cover the red “F”, placing the rifle in a safe position. When the safety is engaged the trigger can be depressed but the rear striker on the bolt is not released to engage the firing pin. While in this safe condition, the bolt can still be cycled in order to remove a round from the chamber while keeping the rifle safe. Move the safety forward, exposing the red “F” and the rifle is prepared to fire. The trigger itself is a blade style trigger, meaning there is a “safety” blade that protrude through the center of the trigger that must be pressed during the trigger squeeze in order for the trigger to allow the rifle to fire. We are not huge fans of this style of trigger, but a number of rifles use them now and they have become a part of the industry. The extra means of liability protection that this trigger system enables, allows manufacturers to ship their rifles with a lighter weight trigger pull, which is a good thing. Unfortunately, the trigger on this Ruger is not that light, breaking at 4.25 lbs. Fortunately the triggers are adjustable from 3-5 lbs, you just need to remove the stock and then use a small Allen wrench to adjust the weight of pull via a single set screw at the front of the trigger mechanism. Though we noted that when we lightened this trigger, it seemed to introduce some creep into it, which there are no adjustments to fix.

The action has a hex shape to the top profile with the sides cut flat. There is a bolt release button on the left hand side of the action that fits flush to the action until the bolt is pulled to the rear which causes the rear portion of the button to protrude up allowing the operator to depress it and then pull the bolt from the rear of the action. It works well, though it can be a bit hard to depress if wearing thick gloves. As was mentioned earlier, the action has groves machines into the bottom of it that mate up to the aluminum V blocks mounted in the bedding area of the stock. The action also has a few pressure release ports on the sides in the case of a catastrophic failure to help protect the shooter. The rifles also come with a single piece aluminum picatinny style rail, with zero cant, mounted at the factory.

The bolt is a three lug design which allows for a short rotation stroke giving plenty of clearance for the scope as well as allowing for quicker bolt manipulation. The bolt handle is turned down and slanted back toward the shooter as just about all modern rifles are today. The bolt knob is a small traditional shaped round knob finished in black. The rear shroud is made of plastic, though it is unlikely it would ever come under heavy abuse to where it might fail, but it is something to be aware of. The bolt body is actually a bit different than normal as it is a very thick body that steps down at the very front where the bolt lugs and face are located. There is one grove cut into the left hand side of the bolt where the bolt release lever slides and guides the bolt. As was mentioned, the bolt has three lugs, versus the normal two found on Remington, Mauser and Winchester actions, and located on front of one of those lugs is a M16 style clip extractor with a plunger located on the opposite side of the bolt face. This provides a good positive extraction and appears that it will hold up well over prolonged use. The entire bolt body is in the bare metal, where the plastic shroud and bolt handle are black.

We already expressed our disappointment at the beginning of this review in the fact that the barrel was a “heavier” sporter profile and not a true heavy barrel. According to our caliper, the diameter of the 18″ barrel at the muzzle is only .725″, where as a Remington heavy barrel is .820″ on a 26″ and .850 on the 20″. The barrel reminds us a little of the thinner profile Steyr SSG-69 PI barrel, so we decided to measure that barrel and it came in at the same .725″. But the Steyr barrel felt and looked heavier, and then we recalled that the Ruger barrel was only 18″ long, where as the Steyr was 24″. When we measured the Steyr barrel at 18″ of length it was .820″ diameter. So what makes the Ruger barrel appear thinner, which it is, is that it tapers down quicker, going to .725″ in only 18″ of length. If the same profile were to be used on a barrel that was 22″ or 24″ in length, then it would likely have a “heavier” look and feel to the barrel profile, being very similar to the Steyr. That heavier weight also would provide additional stiffness and would reduce the heating time of the barrel when firing multiple shots.

The barrel is mounted to the action using what appears to be a similar setup to the Savage and other lower cost rifles using a lock ring setup to easily establish the proper head spacing. This system saves machining labor which in turn saves cost. A surprising feature is the threaded barrel and it is not only surprising because its on a low price rifle, but more so because it is on such a thin profile barrel. If it is to be used for a muzzlebrake then its understandable, but to use it for a suppressor would be surprising. It is certainly doable, and has been done, but putting all that weight out front on a thin sporter barrel will cause dramatic point of impact shift, though it should be repeatable so it can be compensated for. The rifle comes with a thread protection cap as well. The entire barrel, and the action, are finished using a matte bluing that appears to be good quality.

The overall feel of the rifle is like a light weight hunting rifle. Without optics it only weighs 6.2 lbs, which is extremely light for a tactical rifle. The light weight is a result of the cheap plastic stock, and the short 18″ sporter weight barrel. The fit and finish of the rifle is crude when compared to higher end sniper rifles, but for the low price point of the rifle, it isn’t bad. The cheap stock is perhaps its biggest shortfall in terms of the cheap appearance of the rifle. It is short and handles fairly well, as you would expect from such a small and light hunting rifle. But we needed to find out how the rifle performed in order to draw any sort of overall conclusions.

For our tests we mounted one of our test mule scopes, a Leupold Vari-X III 6.5-20x50mm that had seen a good life mounted on a police sniper rifle for a number of years. We use this scope often on our test rifles and it mounted up quick using a pair of Leupold Mk4 steel 30mm rings on the provided Ruger one piece rail. For the shooting portion of the test we had very favorable weather conditions with 60 degrees F, overcast and very mild winds from 1-3 mph. If you are not familiar with the tests that we perform on our rifles, go ahead and read about them on the how we test page.

The first obvious point that we will talk about is the fact that this Ruger hated the Federal Gold Medal Match ammo, which is very odd. The Federal GMM has long been the gold standard of match grade ammo that all others are compared against, but for this rifle, it was the dog of the group. Not a single group came close to going under 1 MOA which had us worried that the performance of the rifle was not going to be good at all. But then we switched to the Swiss-P ammo and it is as if it was a completely different rifle. It was the opposite with this ammo, there was not a single group over 1 MOA and it was a pillar of consistency. The Ruger has a 1:10″ rate of twist which means it should handle the heavy weight bullets, including heavy sub-sonic loads, with any problems. So we were curious to see how the HSM M118LR ammo would perform with the 175gr bullets, and it did not disappoint delivering the best group, and average, of the bunch. Though the M118LR was not as consistent as the Swiss-P with some wider groups offset by the tight ones. Finally, with the S&B M80 ball ammo, the rifle did not do too bad, averaging just over 1 MOA and out performing the Federal GMM by a wide margin. We are still baffled as to why the rifle will not shoot the GMM and we have to think it is this rifle only and should not be indicative of all the Ruger Predators. The accuracy performance of the rifle at 100 yards was not bad at all, especially for the price point and we would have to say it outperformed our expectations.

For our 300 yard rapid fire head shot test, we decided to go with the more consistent Swiss-P ammo over the HSM as we tend to favor good consistency when possible. Consistency Equals Accuracy. So we set the Figure 14 target up at 300 yards, adjusted our scope up 5 MOA and prepared for the engagement. The three shots took us 23 seconds to fire, which is a decent time, but we were slowed down bringing the rifle back on target. The light six pound rifle and short 18″ barrel lead to a rifle that bounced around with a good amount of muzzle flip when fired. Even when setup nicely behind the rifle to try and mitigate recoil, it still hopped around causing a delay locating and aligning with the next target. The thin forearm also contributed to this as it is not a stable platform even when on a sandbag and a bipod is likely a better option. The short bolt rotation did help with rapid bolt manipulation though. The accuracy at 300 yards in a rapid fire engagement opened up a little over the 100 yard results, which is to be expected. The group measured 3.818″ (1.216 MOA) and was nicely centered on the head.

The rifle is very light which contributes to a stiff recoil for a 308 rifle, though it does help when carrying the rifle in the field. The cheek weld is also right on bare plastic and the recoil, muzzleflip, and stiff plastic contributed to a sore cheek when the firing was done for the day. The trigger reach is long on the rifle which for those shooters with smaller hands it may be a bit more difficult to get a good trigger squeeze. The bolt feeds smooth from the magazine and we had no failures to feed or problems with the magazine. But we also noticed that you cannot single feed the rifle buy just dropping a single round into the magazine area and then pushing the bolt forward. You must feed from the magazine, or start the round into the chamber using your hand before closing the bolt. During our firing, we also noticed one of the shortcomings of a thin barrel profile, it heats up very fast and becomes very hot without a lot of rounds fired. As barrels heat up, the metal moves and it can negatively effect accuracy or cause a point of impact shift. We did not notice any of these traits, but the quickly heating barrel still caused us some concern.

So what are our thoughts on the rifle? Well, keeping it in perspective, we have to remind ourselves it is a LOW budget rifle. It feels low budget and we do not expect the plastic parts to wear particularly well over time. But the accuracy is there and we did not find any major faults that would prevent it from be used if needed. If Ruger were to ever put a true 18″ heavy barrel on the rifle, or keep the same “heavier” profile barrel and lengthen it out to 24″, then I think they would have a more enticing proposition for us. At that point we would consider it a modern version, and cheaper, of the Steyr SSG-69 PI, rotary magazine and all. But as it is now, even with the decent accuracy, we are not too excited about it. We really wanted to be as we have a new conceptual idea we are working on and we wanted to use this rifle for it. Maybe if they do the 24″ version we’ll give it a whirl.

53 Comments

Yes, as we indicated in the review, we do not consider it a suitable sniper rifle, but it is not because the barrel is only 18″. We have reviewed several sniper rifles with 18″ or shorter barrels that work great as sniper rifles. This Ruger falls short in a other areas though.

Yes, you are correct, good hunting rifle. Yes, I will accept that we are probably a bit too critical, though that came from some questionable use of marketing and we were expecting a bit too much. But it certainly will work fine for hunting.

I just received mine 308 RAP . I installed a Burris 3x9x40 fullfield e1 . 2 shot at 25 too get on paper. Shot 4 more at 100 and got a group of .875 So I am very happy with low budget build shooting .875 for 4 shots.

I purchased one of these rifles new and had nothing but problems. Would not chamber a round without jamming. Others have had the same problems. Ruger sent me a new magazine, same problem. Now they want me to send them the rifle. Research the Web, you will find that this is a long time problem with these rifles. Even Ruger is aware of it.

Great review. A little TLC does improve the gun. Adding 1lb of silicone mold making material to the inside of the buttstock improves balance and recoil control. Also the addition of a stock pack with a cheek rest helps with the eye alignment on the scope. Most of the guns also require a little bit of stock removal on the left side of the barrel channel. I have noted a rather substantial POI shift (4 moa to left and down on my particular gun) when adding a silencer, but as stated it is repeatable. For some unexplained reason the shift is greater with the same can screwed on than it is using a QD mount (Gemtech “The One”). Using Freedom Munitions 168 gr AMAX rounds I can consistently group sub-MOA with 4 round groups (mag capacity). There is a new 10 round aluminum mag being made for the gun and can be found at Anarchy Outdoors.

I was under the impression that other Ruger American rifle models have fairly soft metal in their actions (receivers). As a result I’ve heard reports of scope mounts ripping out of the threaded holes in the receivers. Is this the case with the American Predator rifle, where a soft metal seems to be used?

For a working mans rifle with a rail and threaded barrel that is selling for $420.00 in my part of the country it is not bad. 3 group hanging around 1/2″ and a little over not to bad. I am sure we have all seen rifles twice to three times the price that did not shoot as well. I would however like to see how the plastic especially in the magazine holds up when the temp hit -20 even -30 degrees as it does in a ND winter. I guess I will find out as I did grab one in 300 Blackout and plan to turn on a suppressor and spend a day calling and playing with yotes this winter. Every once in a while you have to do something a little different so later you can make the comment “That was Stupid.” But with fur prices expected to be very low this winter might as well try it.

I have the Ruger predator in 6.5 Creedmoor in a MDT lSS chassis, put a timney trigger in it as well . Shoots better than most people that have shot it can shoot. Several retired special forces snipers and a retired SWAT team sniper. All are extremely impressed .Have about 900.00 in it less optics,and you can’t touch a Ruger precision Rifle for that price around here or any where else for that matter. Have a little over 2300 rounds thur it and NO problems.It Absolutely spanked a Gunsight prepared Ruger Percision Rifle and a custom 700 Remington. Its a great buy for the entry or low cost precision type rifle.

Review seems pretty harsh for a rifle that has the features it does and can be picked up for the price that it can be. What an age we live in where a sub MOA rifle can be bought for less than 400$ that has a threaded barrel, detachable magazine, and is free floated from the factory. Great rifle for the price.

We did not mean for it to be harsh, just honest. Yes, as we commented, the accuracy is good. But some of the other features are not… at least for what we intend to use rifles for. But if you are on a very tight budget, it will work… and be watching for future articles, it just might show up again…

Put a Boyd’s Prairie Hunter or Pro Varmint stock on $150, a glades armory bolt handle on $60 and you take care of that cheap plastic feel, some of the spread since there is no flex from heated up plastic and you have a better hand purchase for cycling the bolt.

I am not a fan of Ruger at all with the exception of the mini-14 and their single action revolvers. However, I picked up a 22WMR version of this rifle about a year ago. I mounted a cheap Simmons 3X9X32 scope. It comes with two different interchangeable cheek pieces and after tinkering around with it it fits me fairly well and at 75 yards it is phenomenally accurate for the price and I have taken several coyotes with it. A buddy of mine bought a standard model chambered for 30/06 shortly after. It too is extremely accurate but the recoil with 180gr. bullets will knock the fillings out of your back teeth. It feels more on par with a 300wm. In fact,the recoil of my standard walnut stocked M700 BDL 300 wm feels more like a push whereas his 06 is more like a smack. I would like to see them come out with a heavier barreled tactical version. Then I may consider owning one.

I was thinking about purchasing this rifle and putting an A2 flash suppressor on it (in the 308 version) – is there anything about this rifle that would make this not possible, or not a good idea? E.g., the shape of the crown, etc.?

It strikes me as odd that the reviewer would not be VERY pleased with a $400 rifle with a threaded barrel that can hold 1 moa at 300 yards while wearing an optic that’s described like it’s been run like a rented mule. I don’t see anything about a proper break in period either. Maybe this rifle is even more accurate than described if broken in properly?

It seems many are not getting why we are not excited about the rifle. First, taken directly from the article “The accuracy performance of the rifle at 100 yards was not bad at all, especially for the price point”. Besides hating federal GMM ammo, the rifle shot pretty well and we stated several times we were pleased with that part of it. We were disappointed in some of the simple and basic things that we would have expected in a “predator” rifle (not even a sniper rifle). A true heavy, or even medium, weight barrel, a stock that was profiled more for predator type hunting, (wider forend, better pistol grip, etc). These are things that really wouldn’t have added much cost and would have made it fit more to what they were advertising it as. If it were advertised as a “1 MOA hunting rifle for under $400”, then yep, we would be happier… though we would not have tested it.

But you (probably a better shooter than most) got more like 1/2 moa performance out of it with factory ammo. How much does it cost to get that from say a GAP M40 or M24 type rifle? You can probably slap a better stock on this rifle, maybe a better trigger at some point, and possibly a good can that will improve accuracy further. I agree with you on the stock feeling chintzy and the barrel profile being a little weak, but .75 in at the muzzle isn’t exactly light weight either. $400 for an out of the box 1/2 – 1 moa (again with factory ammo) rifle from Ruger (nearly bullet proof customer service in my experience) vs $4000 for a Gladius (can you even get them for that much now?) is pretty impressive to me, I’d be willing to buy just the action and then find a better stock I think. I’m just and old grunt that qual’ed and coached Marines on open sights though, so I might be missing something. Your groups look awesome, especially that cloverleaf one. Regardless of whether we agree or not, you’re a great shot man!

@Dan. Thanks, I appreciate the compliment and I do understand what you are saying and yes, for the $400 its not bad at all. I fear that aftermarket stocks are going to be rare because the trigger guard is molded into the stock… but we’ll see what happens. We have similar complaints for the Thompson-Center Venture Predator as well… which we just picked up to do a review on and were similarly disappointed. We’ll see how this one shoots (T-C guarantees 1 MOA). Price is a bit more than the Ruger

I don’t consider myself a great shooter. However, this rifle made me feel like one. Standard predator in 6.5 with extreme duty mbreak yielded .40-.5 MOA consistently. Gonna put it on a Boyds prairie hunter this week and pillar bed it. Only mod I plan on doing. That’s using factory Hornady preci huntr 143 eld-x btw.

[…] rifle that could be used as a sniper rifle. This search lead us to recently do a review of the Ruger American Predator rifle which instilled some mixed feelings to its suitability to this role. This time around we […]

[…] bolt body that matches the diameter of those three lugs. This is the same bolt design as the Ruger American Predator Rifle, though there are some modifications made for the RPR. The extractor is the same small AR style […]

either one will work well. If you are hunting medium sized game (Deer or smaller) then both will work fine. The 6.5 CM has much better ballistics, but the 308 has many more options available for quality ammo.

I bought this gun for my son as a high school graduation present. He got the 6.5 Creedmoor. I put a inexpensive Athlon 6-20 power scope on it with turrets. My 15 year old (non-shooter) son is grouping 14 inches at 900 yards. Not a bad gun for the money. We are hunters, not snipers, but i am satisfied.

I’m a hunter on a budget in eastern NC where we hunt deer and pigs. I’m looking at this rifle in 6.5 Creedmore to replace my old Marlin 30/30 or at least enhance my capability. We generally shoot between 100-150 yrds. I looked at the Thompson Center compass and didn’t like the slop in the bolt as it cycled and while still a budget rifle this seems much better. I understand you’re more into tactical rifles but your thoughts as to this rifle as a decent deer rifle probably not seeing more than 100 or so rounds per year would be appreciated.

For that role, this rifle would serve well. It is lightweight and is more accurate than it probably should be. There are some cheap parts on it to save money (like we mentioned) but as an affordable hunting rifle, it does well.

Boyd’s makes several drop-in stock options for the Predator in Laminate, Maple and Walnut. The Laminates are all under $200.00 and come with a plastic trigger guard and V-Blocks. A metal trigger guard is available from DIP,inc for around $25.00. One can turn the little gun into about anything they want on a budget!!

It’s an excellent review. These should take every aspect into consideration and give the reader a critical evaluation of the gun – better to know now than find out later. I have one in .223 and it shoots 1/2 MOA at 100 with match ammo 1-1.25 with bulk. I have no intention of dressing this gun up it’s a bonafide shooter on a budget and I’ll use it that way.

So you are saying that the appearance of this rifle gave you a cynical opinion before you even got to the range… Sounds like it performs just as good as some $1000 rifles besides it’s cheap looks. Would a true bull barrel make it shoot better in practical situations? No… It’s not a high end rifle although on paper it wouldn’t take much to get there. It’s not a Seekins, it’s an economy rifle. Cool your jets bro…

Did you read the full review? If so, then you should understand why we had the initial opinion, and it is something everyone does when they buy a rifle. Initial impressions which then we test to see if they hold up. Ruger indicated a heavier weight barrel, that was false. (Funny that they have changed their wording some now). And yes, a bull barrel would indeed improve performance. As we indicated at the end of the review, for a cheap sporter barrel rifle, it did just fine.

I bought one for $399 in a 6.5 Creedmoor, traded in my Tikka 3 .270 for it. One might think I was crazy ! Maybe, but…. I was looking NOT for a sniper rife but for a walk about mount rifle with accuracy, lite weight, and a lot less kick. This filled my needs. 6.5 has about 8 lbs less kick than a .270 and the Tikka 3 Lite and this A. R.P. weights about the same. If you want a sniper go and spend $1000 to $4000 on one. Want a good accurate mountain rife get the predator on a 6.5 Creed. If you drop it down a mountain etc. No biggie at $399